


you make heaven a place on earth

by dumdum69



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: College AU, Fluff and Humor, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!, M/M, VERY VERY FLUFFY !!!!!! TOOTH ROTTING FLUFF!!!!, lady and the tramp smooches...., lance and keith being stupid as usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:29:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29454579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumdum69/pseuds/dumdum69
Summary: "Listen, I tell you everything about myself - " Lance says."All totally unwanted information, by the way," Keith interjects. "I didn't give two flaming shits about the Mickey Mouse rash," he says, running a hand through his hair in exasperation."The Mickey Mouse rash was fucking significant Keith! The Mickey Mouse rash belongs in the Library of fucking Congress, okay?" Lance screeches, leaning forward on the table, precariously close to tipping over a glass of water. Keith quickly moves the glass away from imminent tragedy, and stares at Lance stonily."I don't think the Library of Congress wants the Mickey Mouse rash, Lance," Keith says, sighing deeply, and Lance groans, dropping his head down onto the table in frustration."Point is, I tell you everything, and I ask for nothing in return, being the selfless martyr that I am, so it's only fair that this one time, you tell me what you were doing this morning!" Lance says, flinging his hands up in the air dramatically.____________________________________________________________________________________valentine's day college AU: keith is lance's secret admirer & lance is... lance
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 165





	you make heaven a place on earth

**Author's Note:**

> HI YALL!!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!
> 
> so this fic isnt beta-read or anything and i slammed it out in like... a couple of hours tonight? im SO sleepy & i did my best but there are ABSOLUTELY hella mistakes omfg
> 
> based off of a klance hc posted by youraveragemushroom on her twitter (  
> [@redwlwmushroom](https://twitter.com/redwlwmushroom)) hehe!!! go follow her for some lovely klance content & an even lovelier person!!! 
> 
> i hope yall enjoy reading it & as always, kudos/comments make my day hehe!!!! <33333
> 
> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/dumdum692)

Historically, Valentine's Day has always been... kind of bad for Lance.

Exhibit A: Jenny Shaybon, sophomore year of high school. Lance, with a bouquet of daisies he picked himself, sweating through his Garrison jacket, walking into her Physics class and yelling, "Excuse me, I'm really attracted to you and according to Newton's Law of Gravitation, you're attracted to me too!" and thrusting the daisies at her.

Jenny Shaybon, sighing deeply and tucking a lock of her brown hair behind her ear and saying, "Oh... _Lance,_ you're a great friend but... I just don't see you that way," eyes glittering sympathetically, the rest of the Physics class sitting there, ready to burst into whispers the second Lance leaves the room, Lance stuttering "O-oh, okay, no problem, got it!", dumping the flowers on her desk, and skittering out of the classroom like a wounded animal.

Exhibit B: Junior year, the other Jenny, (who's last name is something nobody can pronounce), who's notoriously not quite as nice of a person as Jenny Shaybon, but who would let Lance buy her lunch and in turn would invite him to parties. And Lance somehow didn't realize this was a transactional dynamic, until he went up to her with a big grin and said "My psychic told me you’d agree to get dinner with me tonight. Was she right or should I fire her?", and Jenny looked at him with a deeply underwhelmed expression and said "Fire her. By the way, can you get me some of the chocolate milk today for lunch?" and Lance had meekly said "Sure," and scampered off.

And Lance could continue on for God-knows-how-long about all of his failed romantic endeavors, but for the sake of time and his pride, he won't. Point is, Valentine's Day? Lance has honestly kind of stopped trying with it.

So on ten a.m this Valentine's Day, he's standing in a CVS with thirty dollars in his pocket, trying to figure out if he wants to get the three pound back of Twix or the three pound bag of Kit Kats, or if he should just give in and get both.

To be honest, it makes him a little sad to not celebrate Valentine's Day - he used to have so much enthusiasm for the holiday as a kid, but it depresses him even more to think about the literal eight consecutive years in a row that he's been rejected on Valentine's Day, so he'd rather just spend it chilling on his own, you know?

And anyways, this year, it'd be more soul-crushing than ever to be rejected by his crush on Valentine's Day - if that happened, Lance thinks he'd turn into stone and shatter into a bajillion pieces. God, he doesn't even want to think about it, that's how bad it would be.

"...Lance?" a voice calls from behind him.

Oh _fuck._ Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

He whips around, and is face to face with his ungodly handsome, world class broody asshole, biggest, baddest crush that Lance has ever had in his entire lifetime, his college roommate, Keith Kogane.

So here's the thing: Lance was _going_ to room with his best pal, Hunk, but then Hunk and his girlfriend, Shay, decided to move into together in an apartment off campus. And Lance was totally happy for them and all of that, but it was also... incredibly inconvenient for him, because he had to find a whole new roommate.

And so he had just let it happen randomly - Lance is a pretty easygoing guy, so he figured he'd get along decently with basically anyone, right?

Wrong, he finds out.

Horribly, terribly, awfully wrong.

See, at first, Lance _hated_ Keith, mainly because Keith had moved in way earlier than him and spread all of his crap across the room, and when Lance came in to try and move in, all of the drawers, closets, even the bed were overrun with Keith's things - the guy doesn't even own that much stuff, he's just messy as _hell_.

And Lance had come in and Keith had said "Who are you?" and Lance had said "I'm Lance, your new roommate?" and Keith had glared at him and said "What? I don't have a roommate," and Lance had wanted to literally _scream,_ because oh my _God_ , there's two of everything in this room, what the hell do you _mean?_

Or like once, when Keith decided to use the common room kitchen to make ramen, and ended up burning it because he didn't use a pot to cook the ramen - he had just slapped it down on the burner and let it catch flame. Lance had been in the shower, and the fire alarm had started going ape shit, and he came out in his towel to everyone in the building out on the lawn, the fire department pulling up, and Keith standing there, looking wholly unbothered by the entire situation. 

And he went up to Keith and asked "What happened?" and Keith had said "There was a fire," and Lance was like, "I know that, dipshit, but _why_?" and Keith had said "I burnt my ramen," and Lance had stared at him for a good few minutes, trying to figure out if he was being sarcastic or not, until Keith's stomach had growled, and Keith had sighed deeply and said "I'm going to the dining hall," and just... walked off, and Lance was left there, simultaneously dumbstruck, appalled, and awed by how severely laissez-faire Keith was about causing a small fire in the kitchen.

But after a couple of weeks, Lance had found out that Keith wasn't really a bad guy just... very, very, _very_ abrasive.

The first day Lance had realized it was when he had come back from class, and Keith was sitting at his desk, holding a small, squirming bundle to his chest.

"What's that?" Lance had asked, slinging his bag off his shoulder and placing it on the floor.

Keith had just scowled and said, "He's _hurt_ ," and the little bundle had mewled pitifully from Keith's grip, and oh, wait, Lance realizes, the bundle is a _puppy_. His annoying roommate was cradling a tiny, whimpering puppy in his unfortunately sculpted arms, and had Lance been a weaker man, he would have nearly passed out at the sight of the puppy poking its little nose out of the bundle and Keith leaning down to give it a soft kiss on its velvety muzzle, but thankfully, he didn't, and instead had corralled Keith and the puppy into the bathroom to give the little guy a bath

And so now they have a puppy in their dorm, getting bigger and bigger by the day - Keith didn't want to name it, but Lance calls it Kosmo, and it sleeps in Keith's bed. They're not supposed to have pets in their dorm, and Keith keeps saying that he's going to give Kosmo to his mom, but... it hasn't happened yet, and it doesn't seem like it will anytime soon, and honestly? Lance is pretty happy about that.

And Keith's honestly gotten nicer and nicer and _nicer_ since that point. Lance thinks he just needed time to open up or something, but now, Keith is honestly the nicest guy Lance knows. He'd probably give someone the shirt off his back if they just asked nicely.

Like once, Lance had worked up the courage to ask the girl sitting next to him in his physics class for her number, and she had rejected him, and Lance had come back to the room kind of mopey, and he just went and sat on his desk and half-assedly tried to study to take his mind off of it.

And Keith stared at him from across the room silently for at least fifteen minutes or so, watching Lance quietly mope and pretend-study, and Lance was _this_ close to turning around and snapping at him, because seriously, what the hell is this guy's problem? But before he could, Keith had left the room, and a few minutes later, he comes back in with a warm blanket fresh out of the dryer and drapes it around Lance's shoulders, and he sort of looks off to the side instead of making eye contact with Lance, and awkwardly asks "You okay, man?"

And Lance was so surprised that he couldn't even be sad anymore, and he started laughing, and asked "What's this for?", and Keith had looked kind of offended and said "I don't know! You looked sad! Why are you laughing at me?" and that made Lance laugh even harder, because he wasn't laughing at Keith, he was just shocked by how damn _sweet_ the gesture was, and the fact that it was coming from _Keith_ of all people.

And wait; it gets worse. He has a motorcycle, so he always drives Lance to class, and he waters Lance's succulents when Lance forgets to, and he'll watch crappy action movies with Lance on Lance's bed and they'll fall asleep there together, and usually when Lance wakes up, Keith will be carefully trying to extricate his arm out from underneath Lance, so as to go to class without waking Lance up, but Kosmo will usually jump on top of both of them, so it's an appreciated, but ultimately futile effort on Keith's part.

And he's memorized Lance's Starbucks order and when Lance is sad, he'll awkwardly put an arm around him and try to stiltedly comfort him, and despite being so emotionally dense, he's oddly insightful at times, and gives really good advice, and he gets along really well with Lance's friends too, and he snores a little when he sleeps, and he's _awful_ at school, but he tries _so_ sincerely, and when Lance tries to help him with math homework, and he gets stuck, he scrunches his nose up like a kitten and sticks his tongue out just a little bit, and Lance wonders what it would be like to just -

Yeah, okay, point is Lance has a big, fat, stupid crush on his roommate, and he has no clue what to do about it, because Keith has kind of become one of his best friends, and he doesn't want to fuck that up, but also, does he get literal heart palpitations when Keith comes out of the shower, hair dripping onto his bare chest, towel wrapped around his waist, and grins at Lance innocently? _Absolutely, a hundred percent, undeniably so_.

In summation: Lance is horribly, terribly, irrevocably fucked.

And he has no clue at all whether Keith feels the same way - Keith is awfully nice to him, but he's also quiet and difficult to read. Knowing Keith, it's _extremely_ possible that he just feels like Lance is his best friend, and that's why he's so nice, you know?

Lance hefts both the bag of Twix and the bag of Kit-Kats under his arms - yeah, he's gonna need both of them to survive this Valentine's Day.

"Whatcha doin' here, mullet?" Lance asks, squinting and craning his neck to try and see what Keith is holding behind his back. Keith notices Lance's snooping, and he turns so that his back is pressed up against the opposite aisle, and accidentally knocks over a rack of pregnancy tests.

Keith scowls deeply and stares at the pregnancy tests, trying to figure out whether he should put down the things he's hiding from Lance, and risk revealing whatever they are, or to pick up the fallen items.

"Oh, damn, congrats, dude!" Lance exclaims, squatting down and picking up one of the boxes. "Who's the baby daddy?" he asks, grinning. Keith's scowl deepens further.

"Oh, wait is this like a Mamma Mia situation or something? Is theregonna be a Maury episode about you, mullet? Is it mine?" he asks, unabashedly reveling in Keith's annoyance.

"I'm not pregnant, Lance, and it's not yours," he growls, shifting the things behind his back to one hand, and leaning down to help Lance pick the tests up with his other hand.

"Okay, so what are you doing here, then?" Lance asks, trying to lean forward to see what Keith has behind his back. It's pretty suspicious that one, Keith is awake before noon, and two, Keith is doing shopping on Valentine's Day, and three, that Keith is being secretive about what he's doing here. The only conclusion Lance can derive from this is that Keith must have a secret lover that he's been hiding from their entire friend group - Keith's a weird enough guy that Lance genuinely wouldn't put it past him.

Keith leans backwards, and Lance nearly tips forward, flailing on his knees, and Keith quickly drops the things he's holding to shove his arms beneath Lance's armpits to stabilize him. Lance grasps his shoulders, and hot _damn_ , is it just Lance or is Keith kind of ripped? 

"Bro, buddy, have you been going to the gym without me?" Lance asks, massaging Keith's shoulder in surprise.

Keith sighs deeply and pulls away from Lance, picking up the mysterious item and repositioning it behind his back, out of Lance's line of sight.

"Um... yes? You barely ever go to the gym, Lance," Keith says, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. Lance sighs deeply, and places the pregnancy tests back on the shelf neatly.

"Uh, _yeah_ , 'cause I don't need to work out to be this sexy. I was born like this," Lance says, flexing at Keith with a wink. Keith looks _deeply_ unimpressed.

"What? You weren't a six foot tall baby, Lance. That doesn't make any sense," Keith says, standing back up and frowning.

"I was six feet tall _spiritually_ , Keith," Lance says, and Keith furrows his eyebrows, looking like he's legitimately giving that answer some credence, and before Lance can try to figure out if Keith is taking him seriously or not, Keith interrupts him.

"Wait, what are _you_ doing here? You told me you had, and I quote, 'a hot, steamy date with a cool, sexy babe', and to not expect you to be home before tomorrow morning," Keith says, scowling.

Oh, right. He _had_ told Keith that, hadn't he? He just hadn't wanted to seem lame - his plan was to go crash at Pidge's place and force her to watch rom-coms with him until they fell asleep in each others' very single arms.

"Uh," Lance says intelligently.

Keith squints. "There _is_ no sexy babe, is there?" he says, pointing an accusing finger at Lance.

"The sexy babe exists _spiritually_ , Keith," Lance says, and this time, Keith seems wholly unconvinced by that line of reasoning. Granted, Lance is honestly not sure why it seemed any sort of convincing the first time, but Keith's brain is kind of mysterious like that.

"You don't have any plans today, Lance" Keith says, sounding like he's uncovered a massive conspiracy. Lance scowls, and hugs all six pounds of chocolate to his chest.

"Yeah, well... well, I'm not the one being all sneaky and creepy and weird about my purchases at the fuckin' CVS! Like, what, are you embarrassed or something?" Lance asks, leaning forward and pressing his nose against Keith's. Keith flushes and shoves Lance away hurriedly, backing up against the same pregnancy test aisle.

"Am not," Keith says quickly, face red.

"Are too!" Lance says, pushing further into Keith's personal space.

"Am not!" Keith growls, butting his forehead up against Lance's.

"Are _too_!" Lance growls back, returning the gesture with full force.

And suddenly, a realization hits him.

"Ohhhh... wait, dude, are you getting condoms or something? Is that why you're embarrassed? Because you're worried I'll find out your dick size from the condoms? 'Cause y'know, as someone who has a lot of difficulty finding quality condoms due to my massively huge magnum willy, I completely empathize, and I wouldn't judge at all if you - " he starts, genuinely and honestly trying to comfort Keith. He feels awfully smart for thinking of it, and he thinks Keith will feel relieved that Lance figured it out. 

"I'm _not_ getting condoms, Lance!" Keith hisses, interrupting Lance's heartfelt words of consolation.

At this, Lance groans, and stomps his foot. "Okay, well then, what _are_ you getting? Do you like...have a cool, sexy babe that you're going on a hot, steamy date with, and you're keeping her a secret from me because you're worried she'll fall for me if we met? " he asks, genuinely frustrated. It's deeply unusual of Keith to be so secretive, and honestly? It kind of hurts Lance's feelings.

"Lance, I- what? No, I don't have a cool, sexy babe that I'm keeping secret from you," Keith says, sighing deeply and pinching the bridge of his nose. "And anyways, it's none of your business what I'm buying," he says, and Lance frowns. It's true that it's not, but he just... thought they were closer than that, you know?

"Fine, I _guess_ ," Lance says, sighing. "Have fun keeping secrets from your beloved roommate on your hot, steamy date with your cool, sexy babe tonight, then," he says, walking off and whistling.

"There is _no_ cool, _s_ exy babe, Lance!" Keith calls out as Lance walks off, and Lance puts up a dismissive hand behind him, waving lazily at Keith. Keith growls, and stomps off.

And here's Keith's current dilemma: he has a huge crush on his roommate, but he's almost a hundred - nay, a thousand percent sure that his roommate doesn't feel the same way.

But, he's here, standing in the CVS, holding a teddy bear, and six pounds of chocolate behind his back, and he's on his way to pick up a heartfelt card to confess his feelings to Lance with. He's genuinely terrified to tell Lance how he feels though - truth be told, Keith's never really had feelings for someone before, and it's awfully scary to be falling so hard for Lance when he has no clue if Lance feels even remotely the same way.

And Keith's never been a coward - he's done motorcycle jumps over electric fences, scaled sheer cliff faces, and dove into below-freezing water, all just for the hell of it, but he's never been more scared of _anything_ before in his entire life.

Because honestly? There's nothing that makes him happier in this world than waking Lance up with a nice, hot cup of Starbucks coffee, and watching Lance's face light up with a big, earnest smile, brighter than the sun, blue eyes surging joyfully like the tides, his freckled face glowing. Or taking Lance out for a drive on his motorcycle, Lance's long fingers wrapped around his middle, his head pressed warmly against the nape of Keith's neck, his minty breath wafting up into the wind, his laughter ringing through Keith's ears and sticking to his heart like spun sugar.

And he's happy that he gets to do all of these things with Lance - sit side by side with Lance in class, press their knees together gently, the spot where they touch hotter than flames, and listen to Lance mock their asshole professor, Zarkon, in hushed whispers. Watch Lance sleep in the bed beside Keith's, curls splayed around his head like a halo, chest rising up and down steadily, so close, yet so far away. Sometimes, Keith wants to get up in the night and run his fingers through Lance's fluffy hair, trace the sharp line of his jaw, the plush bow of his hips - it keeps him awake, knowing that the boy of his dreams is not even six feet away from him, and he literally can't do _anything_ about it, lest he risk their happiness.

Truthfully, he's actually pretty surprised that Lance isn't more excited for Valentine's Day - Lance is such a romantic, so Keith is shocked that Lance seems to have no plans at all.

And suddenly, an idea strikes Keith - what if they spent Valentine's Day together?

He could leave the gifts and card in Lance's mailbox, and say they're from a secret admirer, and he could spend the day with Lance, and hopefully watch Lance's reaction to them, without suffering any of the consequences.Lance is happy, and Keith isn't exposed as a fool in love, and he gets to watch Lance be happy. It's a win-win!

It's a pretty quick process for Keith to select a card (obviously, he picks the one which has the worst pick up line on it), and to drop it off in Lance's mailbox at the mail center.

The next step, and the hard part, is calling Lance and asking him if he wants to hang out.

He quickly dials Lance's number, and his heart throbs in his chest as the phone rings. _Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up_...he thinks, tapping his feet anxiously.

"'Sup?" Lance's voice reverbs tinnily into Keith's ear through the phone.

"Hey, Lance," Keith says. God, did his voice always sound this weird? Were his hands always this sweaty?

"Yo, I'm heading back to the room. What are you up to?" Lance says.

Keith shrugs, before he remembers that Lance can't see him. "Uh, not much. Listen, uh... do you want to hang out or something? I'm free all of today, so do you want to maybe grab lunch?" he asks, wiping his palm on his jeans nervously.

There's a suspicious silence on the other end, and Keith's throat starts to feel horribly dry, and then Lance finally speaks, clearing his throat.

"Oh, uh, lunch, huh?" Another nerve-wracking silence. It's another thirty seconds before Lance starts speaking again.

"Cool, cool, cool,cool - where do you wanna go?" Lance asks.

 _Lance likes Italian food_ , his brain conveniently supplies for him. "There's uh - there's this new Italian place, I think it's like a five minute drive on my bike from campus. I can uh, make reservations there, if you want," Keith says stiffly.

"Oh, shit, reservations? Damn, you're going all out, Keith! Gettin' funky for Valentine's Day, huh?" Lance asks. Keith can hear the grin in his voice, and it makes him ease up.

"Yeah, uh, getting funky," Keith says, the words rolling strangely off his tongue. He smiles into the phone, even though he knows Lance can't see it.

"Catch you later then, 'kay, mullet?" Lance says pleasantly, and Keith feels relieved.

"Bye, Lance," he says, ending the call.

He arrives at their room about ten minutes later, and Lance is laying on his bed, laughing as Kosmo licks at his face.

"Keith!" he exclaims breathlessly, and without thinking, Keith shucks off his shoes and jumps onto the bed along with them, and Kosmo barks, nuzzling his fuzzy head into Keith's shoulder. Lance is scratching behind Kosmo's ear and laughing, the side of his shoulder pressed into Keith's other one, and Keith grins at him.

"Ready to go?" he asks. "The reservation's for twelve."

Lance's eyes widen at this, and he sits upright. "Wait, you _actually_ got a reservation, dude?" and Keith frowns.

"Yeah, did you not want me to?" he asks - he figured it'd be easier to go there with a reservation, because he knows that Lance gets irritable when he's hungry, but he didn't think Lance would be opposed to it.

"No, no, that's good - I just... that's kind of a date thing, you know? Reservations on Valentine's Day," Lance says, furrowing his eyebrows and chewing on his bottom lip pensively.

Keith goes cold.

"Uh," he says intelligently, and after a few seconds of thought, Lance falls back onto the bed, laughing.

"Chill, Keith, it's totally fine. I'm honored you wanna treat your best bro to a good-old fashioned wining and dining," he says, grinning up at Keith and nudging him with his elbow. Kosmo pants at them happily, and Keith absentmindedly rubs a hand through his fur.

Keith flushes, and raises a brow. It's... not motivating that Lance has taken this as a purely platonic thing, but he'll take what he can get, he guesses.

"Right," Keith says dubiously, "So... let's get going, then?" he asks, and Lance beams up at him, and _wow_ , Keith feels like an arrow just got shot straight through his heart.

"Sure thing! Just lemme change my sweater first - Kosmo shed all over this one, didn't you, buddy? Who's the cutest shedder in the world? Is it you?" he coos, leaning down and ruffling behind Kosmo's ears affectionately, and Kosmo barks, tongue lolling out pleasantly.

Lance quickly shrugs off his sweater, a ratty one from high school, and pulls out a soft, blue one - the one that Keith usually only sees him wear for dates.

"That's your date sweater," Keith blurts, and he feels his ears turn red when Lance turns and looks at him.

"Hm? Oh, yeah! You made reservations and everything, so I just wanted to look nice for it, you know?" he says, smiling at Keith. Keith feels like he's going to faint any second now.

He wriggles into the sweater, and turns around, planting his hands firmly on his hips. "How do I look?" he says, spinning around with a wink, blue eyes flashing mirthfully.

Keith's throat goes dry - Lance looks _incredibly, unbelievably, extraordinarily_ handsome - the sweater makes his eyes look electric, and hugs his shoulders perfectly, and he looks like a literal _ange_ l, but it'd be awkward as all hell to say that, wouldn't it be?

"Good," Keith croaks, "Really good,". He _prays_ that suffices as a straight enough response.

Lance's grin grows, and he strides over to Keith, linking their arms together. "Shall we?" he says, and Keith's heart surges.

He nods, out of fear that any words he says in response will sound like total gibberish, and they head out the door to the parking garage.

As they're walking, Lance's phone dings, and he slips it out of his pocket, squinting down at it.

"Huh, it says there's a package for me at the mail center? I don't think I ordered anything..." Lance says, rubbing his bottom lip with his thumb pensively.

" _It's from me! I love you!_ " Keith's brain yells. Externally, he keeps his face carefully neutral.

"Who's sending me stuff for Valentine's Day?" Lance wonders aloud, and Keith shrugs.

"It's probably just like, coupons and shit," Lance says, laughing slightly. "It'd be crazy if they were from like... a secret admirer though, wouldn't it be? he says, turning and grinning at Keith.

"Yeah, crazy," Keith says. It's not even a little bit crazy, that's the worst part - even the gift wasn't from Keith, he wouldn't be even remotely shocked if Lance had another secret admirer.

They reach Keith's motorcycle, sleek and red, and Keith tosses Lance a helmet - he got an extra one for Lance last week, considering how often Lance takes rides with him.

"Oh, you got a new helmet?" Lance asks, turning over the helmet in his hands.

"An extra one," Keith says, and before Lance can sputter something about how he wants to pay Keith back for it, he's pulling on his own helmet and climbing onto the bike. "Hold on tight, okay?"

Lance closes his mouth, blinks at him and tugs on the helmet. He clambers on behind Keith, his gangly arms wrapping around Keith's torso, pressing his chest against Keith's back. Keith takes a second to enjoy the feeling of Lance's body heat bleeding into him, and then starts his bike, the engine purring deeply beneath their legs.

"Don't go too fast - I don't want my fucking head to come off or anything," Lance warns, and Keith laughs, speeding up as they head onto the road, and Lance wails, burying his head into Keith's back.

"Dude, what the cheese!?" he yells, clutching Keith's middle tighter. It's a nice feeling, Lance squeezing him from behind, and Keith can't stop the laughter from bubbling out. Soon, Lance is laughing too - they always end up laughing on Keith's bike. Something about the body heat, Lance's heartbeat thrumming against Keith's spine, the cool air rushing past them - it's undeniably _joyful,_ like there's soda bubbles fizzing up behind his ribs. 

It's a quick ride - Keith wishes it could be longer, but they're soon pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant and climbing off. Lance stumbles as he gets off the bike, tripping over his own feet and Keith catches him by the waist, pulling him into his chest for balance.

"Whoa there!" Lance says, tilting his head back, pressing his hands up against Keith's chest to steady himself, and Keith laughs easily, the sound vibrating through his chest and into Lance's hands pleasantly.

"You okay?" Keith asks, gently pulling away from Lance, moving his hands to Lance's shoulders. His violet eyes are brimming with unspoken affection, and Lance thinks that this might somehow be the most romantic Valentine's Day he's ever had, and it's literally a platonic outing. _Fuck_.

Truthfully, he was nervous as shit when Keith had asked him to come to lunch - it sounded like a date! Alone, grabbing a meal together on Valentine's Day? It sounded too good to be true, so Lance had shoved all the warm-fuzzies that were coming up way, way, _way_ down, because there's no damn way Keith meant it like that.

But it's becoming harder and harder to keep them down, because Keith is here, dark hair pushed out of his forehead, smiling up at Lance, his snaggletooth pushing into his bottom lip and violet eyes all soft and warm, and _wow_ , Lance is well and truly fucked, huh?

"Let's go eat, yeah?" Keith says, guiding Lance by the bicep to the restaurant.

It's a legitimately nice place, with cute, vintage-y decor, and slow, Italian music playing. It's also a _very_ apparently romantic place, Lance is realizing, as he looks around and only sees lovestruck couples gazing into each others' eyes, and oh _shit_ , there's even one couple doing the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti thing. Keith picked a _date-date_ spot, huh?

Keith checks in their reservation, and a waiter guides them to a seat. As they walk, it looks like Keith is noticing the same thing as Lance, because his face is beet red and he's looking around frantically.

"Wow, mullet. I'm impressed - you really are wining and dining your best bro, huh?" Lance drawls, hoping to diffuse the tension. He nudges Keith's elbow gently, and Keith stiffens.

"Uh, sorry," Keith says, looking terribly guilty, and Lance frowns. It's a little disheartening that Keith seems _this_ reluctant to be caught dead in a romantic-ish place with him, but he understands that it's probably kind of embarrassing for him. It still sort of irritates Lance though, so he's definitely gonna tease Keith about it.

"It's fine, dude. Nothin' gay about two bros getting a lovey-dovey, smoochy-coochie, lunchy-wunchy on Valentine's Day, right? We can do the Lady and the Tramp thing, see?" he says, nodding towards the couple, and grinning at Keith, and Keith frowns, looking thoughtful. _Huh._ That really wasn't the reaction Lance expected. He sort of thought Keith would turn redder and berate him, not... look like he's legitimately considering doing the Lady and the Tramp thing.

Keith leans back in his seat, brows furrowed. "Would _you_ want to do the Lady and the Tramp thing?" he asks, crossing his arms and looking at Lance solidly.

Lance, who's taking a sip of water as Keith asks that, does a literal spit-take. "Who, me?" Lance chokes out, and Keith raises an eyebrow.

"Uh... yeah?" Keith asks, looking at Lance like _he's_ the weird one.

And this is the crux of Lance's issue with Keith - he gets embarrassed about the wrong fucking things. Like, Lance could ask Keith, "Hey, want to go to the dining hall together?" and Keith will turn red and sputter and act like a swooning maiden or something, but then Lance will walk in on Keith taking a dump and Keith will make dead on, unwavering eye contact with him and say"Hey, Lance, how's it going?". Like, who the fuck raised this boy? Lance just wants to _talk_.

"Um," Lance says, deeply unsure of how to respond.

And _now_ Keith has the audacity to turn away and look kind of shy.

"I just - I mean, I know you're a romantic guy, and if I'm gonna uh... wine and dine you properly, I want to do it all the way, you know? As bros, I mean" Keith tacks on quickly, and Lance raises both eyebrows.

That's awfully considerate of Keith, actually. If Lance is being honest, he's always wanted to do the Lady and the Tramp thing with someone, and if it's with Keith... he's pretty sure that would make his whole damn _year_ , frankly. Nay, his whole _lifetime_. 

"I mean, I'd be down to do the Lady and the Tramp thing if you are... As bros, of course" Lance says, shrugging, trying to feign indifference, and Keith nods.

"Right, as bros," Keith agrees, "We'll order some spaghetti, and eat it together, as bros," he says. 

"As bros, yeah," Lance nods, leaning back in his seat, internally screaming. Why the fuck are they doing this? Why is Lance even going along with this? Is he really so unrelentingly touch-starved that he's literally going to pretend that he feels platonically towards Keith just to get away with having lip-to-lip contact with him?

Also, more importantly, why is Keith so _down_ for this? 

The waiter comes over, and Keith orders spaghetti for them, and Lance is literally vibrating in his seat, hands sweating in anticipation for the spaghetti.

Keith looks strangely calm, although Lance gets the feeling it's morelike the eerie calmness that washes over one when they're close to death, rather than a genuine calm.

"So, uh... do any uh.. things lately?" Lance asks. His voice is pitched high with anxiety, and oh my _God_ , was his sweater always this warm and itchy? 

Keith frowns. "I... I guess?" he says, and the silence between them stretches wider and wider with every passing second. 

Lance frantically thinks of something to say.

"Um... oh! You never told me what you were doing this morning," he says, pointing a triumphant finger at Keith.

Keith scowls, and slides down in his seat. "Nothing," he says, and Lance leans forward in his seat.

"What are you trying to hide from me, samurai? I've walked in on you choking the chicken before - don't I deserve to know everything about you? Haven't I earned that right?" Lance wails, slamming his hands on the table.

Keith raises an eyebrow. "Just because I locked the bathroom doorand you picked the lock open because you had to urgently show me a poison ivy rash shaped only _vaguely_ like Mickey Mouse on your leg and just _happened_ to walk in on me jerking off, doesn't mean you're warranted to know everything about my life, you know," he says reasonably.

"Listen, I tell you everything about myself - " Lance says.

"All totally unwanted information, by the way," Keith interjects. "I didn't give two flaming shits about the Mickey Mouse rash," he says, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

"The Mickey Mouse rash was fucking _significant_ Keith! The Mickey Mouse rash belongs in the Library of fucking Congress, okay?" Lance screeches, leaning forward on the table, precariously close to tipping over a glass of water. Keith quickly moves the glass away from imminent tragedy, and stares at Lance stonily.

"I don't think the Library of Congress _wants_ the Mickey Mouse rash, Lance," Keith says, sighing deeply, and Lance groans, dropping his head down onto the table in frustration.

" _Point is,_ I tell you everything, and I ask for nothing in return, being the selfless martyr that I am, so it's only fair that this one time, you tell me what you were doing this morning!" Lance says, flinging his hands up in the air dramatically.

And Lance honestly wasn't expected that to work, but Keith hesitates.

"I-" he starts, and then of course, like it's a fucking movie, the waiter shows up.

"Your meal, sirs," he says, delicately placing the steaming plate of spaghetti between them with a knowing smile and walking off.

"Uh, thank you," Keith says, staring at it like he's never seen a plate of spaghetti before.

And looking at Keith, Lance realizes, there's no turning back now. They're going to fucking _do it_.

"So, uh... are we really doing it?" Lance asks nervously, twiddling his fork between his fingers.

Keith looks at him with steely eyes, something fierce burning behind them.

"If you want to," he says, and _well_ , there's no feasible way Lance can back out of this now, is there?

He twirls some spaghetti around his fork, and gulps. The lights suddenly seem a lot dimmer, and Keith's eyes suddenly seem a lot more intense, glowing hotly in the lamplight, and Lance is acutely aware of their feet touching beneath the table.

Keith picks some spaghetti up on the other side, and takes a bite, brows furrowed as he slurps it up. Lance would find it funny if he weren't _so goddamn nervous_.

He takes a bite of his spaghetti, and closes his eyes, and starts chewing down on a strand, and oh, fuck, _seriously_? They've somehow started eating the same string of spaghetti on their first goddamn bite - looks like there's no escaping it now.

Lance screws his eyes shut, and is pulled forward by the spaghetti, and he feels the heat of Keith's face come towards him, closer, closer, closer, _closer -_

Lance takes a final bite of his spaghetti, and holy _fuck_ , there's Keith's lips, chapped and warm against his own. They're so close now that he can feel Keith's long eyelashes fluttering against Lance's cheeks, his breath hot against Lance's lips, their noses pressed tip-to-tip, and _Jesus, Mary and Joseph_ , _he's kissing Keith Kogane_.

Lance stays there for as long as he can, reveling in the feeling of Keith's lips brushing against his own, and after a couple of seconds, Keith pulls away, and Lance opens his eyes.

Keith's cheeks are flushed a stark red, but he's making firm eye contact with Lance, and when Lance presses a hand to his own cheeks, he feels that they're burning too.

"So, how was it?" Keith asks, and Lance blinks at him, too dazed to speak.

"Was it good? Did the Lady and the Tramp thing live up to your expectations?" Keith prods intently, and Lance shakes his head, attempting to snap himself out of his lovelorn haze. _Keith doesn't feel the same way_ , he reminds himself, _it's not the same to him as it is to you._

"No?" Keith asks, looking strangely distraught, and Lance snaps upright in his seat.

"No, no, _no_ , it was great, man! You've got uh... fantastic lips for kissing, bro. Primo lips" Lance says awkwardly.

"Thanks, _bro_. You uh... you have primo lips too," Keith says, snorting and taking another bite of the spaghetti.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, punctuated by the sounds of fevered spaghetti eating, before Lance speaks up.

"Uh, thanks for doing that, dude," Lance says, face burning up, and Keith looks up in surprise, noodles of spaghetti sticking halfway out of his mouth, and he hurriedly slurps them up.

"Yeah, of course," he says, "Anything for you, Lance," he adds on softly, smiling slightly at Lance, and Lance's stomach does a backflip. _Jesus_ , does Keith have any idea at all what he's doing to Lance?

They finish their spaghetti in comfortable quiet after that, Lance still recovering from the shock of their kiss, and Keith calls over the waiter to request the bill.

Lance barely registers this, and only realizes once Keith has the bill in his hand and is slipping his credit card into the little book that Keith means to pay the total bill for their lunch.

"Wait, wait, dude, let's split," Lance says, moving to grab his own wallet, and Keith looks irritated.

"I'm paying, Lance," he says firmly, and Lance frowns at him.

"Are you sure? 'Cause I'm perfectly happy to split with you, it's really not a problem for me," he says.

"I _want_ to do this for you, Lance," Keith says, frowning at him, and Lance leans back in his seat, feeling a flush spread over his face. _Christ on a cracker_ , this... really does feel like Keith's wining and dining him.

"I mean, if you say so, samurai, I'm not complaining," Lance says. Looking pleased with his answer, Keith calls over the waiter again, and pays for their lunch.

It's weird, how willing Keith seems to be to do... just do things for Lance. Lance would almost feel bad but Keith legitimately seems _happy_ to do things like this. Lance would almost think Keith had _feelings_ for him, if it weren't such a totally unrealistic idea.

Except...maybe it isn't, Lance starts to think. Maybe, Keith is stupid and pining like him, and just doesn't know how to confess his feelings to Lance.

Otherwise, why the hell would he have taken Lance out on a _literal date_ for Valentine's Day? As much as Lance wants to convince himself otherwise it... just simply doesn't make sense that it's just a "bro thing".

Either Keith is really that fucking dense, or he has feelings for Lance too. The idea of it makes Lance's head spin - he never thought that it could be even remotely possible that Keith would feel the same way about him, but it's kind of... the only rational conclusion someone could make from the events of today, you know?

Keith drives him back to their room, and as Lance walks in, stretching his hands above his head, Kosmo jumps up and paws at his knees. He squats down and presses kisses all over Kosmo's furry head, and Keith leans down and rubs Kosmo's back.

"Did you miss us, buddy?" Lance coos, and Kosmo yelps happily in response. Keith laughs, and Kosmo rolls over onto his back, and they rub at his belly, the puppy squirming happily on the floor.

"Oh!" Lance says, looking up at Keith suddenly, and Keith raises an inquisitive eyebrow.

"I have a package, remember? Do you want to come with me to the mail center to go get it?" he says, and _oh_ , Keith remembers, it's _his_ package. From him, as a secret admirer. To Lance. Confessing his feelings.

"Sure," Keith says, trying to school his face into a neutral expression. Lance gets back up with a heavy sigh, and stretches again, revealing a strip of golden skin above his jeans. Keith resists the urge to run his fingers over it, and turns away. "We'll be back soon, okay?" he says to Kosmo, and Kosmo whines sadly. Keith kisses the top of his head and ruffles his fur, and straightens back up.

He's nervous as hell for Lance to get his present - it's nearly six pounds of chocolate, a teddy bear, and a card confessing Keith's feelings to Lance, signed as "Your Secret Admirer". He knows Lance will like it, given that he doesn't know who it's from, but he's still anxious anyways.

They start walking over to the mail center, Lance whistling excitedly, a skip in his step.

"Are you really that excited to get your mail?" Keith asks, grinning slightly at Lance's enthusiasm.

"It's _Valentine's Day_ mail, Keith! You never know who it could be from," he says, grinning at Keith.

Keith shakes his head and chuckles. "I guess not," he concedes, and opens the door to the mail room for Lance.

Lance looks through the mailboxes, tracing a finger across them, brows furrowed cutely as he tries to find his mailbox. He eventually finds his, and punches in the password, and it clicks open.

Keith leans forward, trying to look in the cubby, and Lance gasps, pulling out the teddy bear excitedly and squeezing it to his chest.

"OH MY GOD, I REALLY DO HAVE A SECRET ADMIRER, KEITH!" he squeals, grinning widely. His eyes are brimming with unrestrained joy, and his cheeks are flushed, aglow with excitement - it's the most amazing thing Keith has ever seen in his whole life. 

"Look at this, look at how fluffy it is! It's so cute!" Lance says, shoving the bear into Keith's arms, and Keith grins broadly at him. 

"Isn't it?" Keith says, unable to keep the pride out of his voice. He's pretty proud of his selection in teddy bears - it's a blue one, Lance's favorite color, a shockingly hard color to find in stores around this time of the year.

"And, wait, holy shit, look at how much chocolate!" Lance exclaims, tugging out the bags of chocolate from the locker. He nearly topples over from the force of the huge bags of chocolate springing out of the cubby, and Keith grabs onto his shoulder, steadying him gently.

"That's...quite a bit of chocolate," Keith says, barely restraining his smile from growing even bigger.

"Whoever this is must know me well, 'cause they know that I only like Twix and Kit Kats!" Lance says, beaming widely at Keith. Keith grins at him, and Lance turns back to the cubby, and pulls out the card.

Keith made sure to pick out the cheesiest, stupidest one in the store - he looked through all the cards carefully for nearly an hour to try and select the best one, and he's pretty proud of what he picked.

Lance opens it up, and reads what's on it aloud.

"Did you invent the airplane? Because you seem just Wright!" Lance reads, voice rising in pitch as he talks. "That's so fucking good! Seriously, I think this person's my soulmate," Lance says, laughing and throwing his curls back. Keith feels like he's going to explode if he doesn't tell Lance who it is, but he holds himself back - he doesn't want to ruin Lance's happiness by revealing that it's himself.

"Dear Lance," Lance starts reading, "I feel so lucky that I know you. You might not know who I am, but every time I talk to you, it makes my day. Your smile is brighter than the sun - I think you're probably the most beautiful person in the world, and I want to give you everything in the universe. But for now, here's a teddy bear and some chocolate. From, your secret admirer," he finishes.

He's silent for a moment, and his shoulders begin to shake. Keith leans over, and he sees that Lance is crying.

"Whoa, Lance! Are you okay?" he asks, wrapping an arm around his shoulder in concern. Lance laughs wetly, and Keith realizes that he's laughing and crying at the same time. 

"I'm just... I'm so _happy_ ," Lance says, grinning widely through his tears. "This is literally the best Valentine's Day I've ever had in my whole, entire life," he says, looking up at Keith with sparkling eyes. Keith wants nothing more than to kiss him senseless at this moment, but he holds himself back, waiting for Lance to continue.

"But, um," Lance says, sniffing and wiping his tears with the back of his sleeve. "Can I ask you something, Keith?" and Keith stiffens, not sure what Lance might have to ask him.

"Um, sure, Lance," Keith says tentatively, moving his hand off of Lance's shoulder.

"Why didn't you just...sign this with your goddamn name?" Lance asks, grinning up at him, and Keith's blood freezes in his veins, because oh God, how the hell did Lance figure it out, and is this it, is Lance going to reject him, and they'll stop being friends and -

Lance grabs his hand and intertwines their fingers together. "I would've been even happier if I had gotten this directly from you, Keith" he says softly, and Keith lifts his head up to look at him, mouth dropping open in surprise.

"Wait, what? How did you know?" he blurts, and Lance laughs, squeezing his hand gently.

"Dude, you made it... pretty obvious today that you like me, not gonna lie," Lance says, cocking his head to the side and raising an eyebrow at Keith.

Keith frowns, furrowing his eyebrows - he honestly thought he did a pretty good job at hiding it, but... then again, Lance is a pretty observant guy, and Keith is pretty oblivious. It's not too surprising in hindsight that Lance would've figured it out.

"Yeah, I um.. I really, _really_ like you, Lance," Keith says, rubbing his thumb across the back of Lance's hand gently. "Do you - do you like me?" he asks, and Lance drops the card, and flings his arms around Keith, burrowing his face into Keith's neck. Keith leans down and presses a tentative kiss into Lance's curls, and wraps his arms around Lance's waist.

"Of course I do, dumbass," Lance says into his shoulder, and Keith leans down, pressing his finger underneath Lance's chin, so Lance is forced to look up at him.

"Then would you mind if I do this?" Keith asks, and quickly captures Lance's lips in a solid kiss, arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Lance's soft lips spread into a grin against Keith's own, and Keith can't help but grin back. Lance pulls away, curls tousled, eyes shining like wet diamonds, cheeks flushed a brilliant red, and Keith wants to kiss him a million times over.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Lance" he says softly, bringing his hand up to caress the smooth skin of Lance's cheek, and Lance leans forward to peck him again.

"Happy Valentine's Day, samurai," Lance says, grinning, "Whaddya say we go back to our room and you help me finish off all this chocolate, secret admirer?" he asks, grabbing Keith's hand and pulling him in the direction of their room, teddy bear dangling in his other hand.

"I'd be honored to, Lance," Keith says, picking up the chocolates and card, and following Lance to their room to continue the Valentine's Day festivities.

And Lance is pretty sure that after this, he's never going to have a shitty Valentine's Day ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> I KNOW, I KNOW... I HAVENT UPDATED MY OTHER FIC FOR TWO WEEKS AND I AM SO SORRY YALL but please take this v-day fic as a consolation!! i promise i will continue the other fic soon im just sTRUGGLING..as always THANK YOU FOR READING & i HOPE U ENJOYED!!!! <333


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